United Nation (Asiantribune.com): Speaking to reporters at the United Nations after the inaugural meeting of the UN Security Council under the Mexican Presidency, the Permanent Representative of Mexico Ambassador Claude Heller told reporters today (2nd April) that Sri Lanka is not on the Security Council agenda and that Council members have nevertheless received good cooperation from the Government of Sri Lanka to share information about the humanitarian situation resulting from the LTTE’s holding Tamil civilians trapped in the safe zone.

Vast improvements have taken place in the conditions of the IDP camps where several steps have been taken for their welfare. The objective of the government is to provide maximum relief to ensure the well-being of the IDP without laxing security, said Hon. Mahinda Samarasinghe, Minister of Human Rights and Disaster Management addressing a media briefing held at the Presidential Secretariat today (02).

Roy Ratnavel's recent National Post article ("Why Canada's Tamils are upset," March 20) may lead readers to the mistaken belief that all Tamils in Canada share the same opinion on the situation in Sri Lanka. In fact, not all Tamils in Canada are from Sri Lanka (many come from India, Malaysia, Singapore and other nations). And even among those Canadian Tamils who do come from Sri Lanka, not all support the LTTE (better known as the Tamil Tigers) or its Canadian affiliates. In fact, most of us don't support the group.

Walter Kaelin, UN Representative of the Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, has been invited by SL government for a brief visit. During his stay, UN Representative Kaelin will discuss future plans on IDPs with a top government delegation.

(Colombo, April 1, 2009) – The Human Rights Council concluded another disappointing session last week by allowing serious discussion of Human Rights issues to be clouded by insistent attacks on selected countries by certain non-Governmental NGOs. Although the President of the Council on occasion called to order some NGOs that engaged in diatribes that had nothing to do with the subjects under debate, he was unable to create a strong monitoring mechanism to address abuse of privileges by Human Rights Watch and other human rights extremists.

Tamils need to be more pragmatic and less utopian 

by Victor Ivan 

The political devastation caused to this country by Black July of 1983 is much worse than the destruction caused by the Tsunami. It was a gruesome and an unfortunate event which provided a reasonable guise to the violent Eelam struggle. Black July was the reason for sympathy at an international level for the Eelam struggle despite its violent and utopian nature. It is this incident which spurred neighbouring India to interfere in the problem.

The ingrained short sightedness of Tamil leaders

by Victor Ivan

About ten years back, I had the opportunity to discuss the ethnic question with a young Tamil leader who was dreaming of an Eelam State devoid of the Tigers. One of the issues we discussed was the language problem. I told him that in the Constitution of J. R. Jayawardene, he has included solutions for the problems of the Tamil people. If the provisions granted by law have not been realised, there is no need for an armed struggle to achieve those rights. Sometimes, these can be won by submitting an appeal on Fundamental Rights to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court is unable to grant any redress, then the next course of action has to be considered. I appealed to him to act accordingly. He was really surprised at what I was telling him.

Were mistakes made only by  the Sinhalese? 

by Victor Ivan

The Sri Lankan Government has been able to defeat militarily, the armed struggle waged by the LTTE. This has caused surprise and shock not only among the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, but also among Tamil people the world over. Earlier, none of them thought the LTTE could be defeated militarily. It had the capacity to safe-guard its existence in any kind of arduous war situation. It was also rated as the first among the separatist terrorist movements in the world. In spite of the fact that the movement is so very ruthless and cruel, its invincibility at the military level, ingrained a certain dignity in the spirit of the Tamils.

New Delhi: With its back firmly to the wall, the LTTE is using suicide bombings to prevent entrapped Tamil civilians from leaving the areas still under the control of the Tigers, Sri Lankan high commissioner to India C. R. Jayasinghe said on Wednesday. Speaking to TOI, he said that the LTTE through such activities was stonewalling all attempts in the island nation to cull out a political solution, the space for which has been created by the military action.

Shock-absorbing stilettos, a pepper-spray watch, an anti-wrinkle tuning fork and a personal earthquake detector are all vying for a commercial break in Geneva.

Creators from around the world have gathered at the 37th Geneva inventors' fair this week to show off their wacky – and perhaps useful - prototypes at the world's leading invention exhibition.

By Scott McDonald, Associated Press  

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lankan troops have surrounded dozens of Tamil Tiger separatist rebels during fierce fighting in the island's north in a drive to end a 25-year civil war, the military said Thursday.

By Jamila Najmuddin

The Sri Lanka Navy has been put on alert for unauthorized ships preparing to transport food and medical supplies to the Wanni bypassing the Government, Navy sources said yesterday.  

This follows a global appeal being launched in Britain yesterday where supplies are being collected to be loaded on a vessel which will leave for Sri Lanka this month.

The Tamil Diaspora is gradually warming to peace initiatives surfacing in Sri Lanka as the Tamil cause brutally hijacked into a ruthless terror outfit breathes its last. Judging by the mood in many western cities, the trend towards a non-violent approach is taking hold according many observers. Representatives of the Tamil Diaspora for peace and development seemed receptive to Rajapaksa Government's initiatives to rehabilitate and reconstruct the North and East.

The conditions at the IDP sites in North are in line with international standards, UNHCR the international lead agency for the internally displaced persons, says in a statement yesterday (31).  

In this statement UNHCR states it wishes to make reference to the Guidance Note outlining principles on protection and assistance with regards to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from the Vanni in the districts of Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mannar.

by Dayan Jayatilleke 

An IANS report from Puducherry, March 25 read as follows: ‘Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said he was not ‘particularly fond’ of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers because they killed his father Rajiv Gandhi. He told a press conference here: "The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) is a terrorist group. I am not particularly fond of the LTTE myself. It killed my father."…Gandhi, however, said that India was doing its best to protect Tamil civilians caught in the conflict between the LTTE and the military in Sri Lanka’s north. "We are trying to help the situation there", he said.’

On 30 and 31 March, Eurojust hosted a tactical meeting on the worldwide criminal activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Delegates from different Member States, non-EU countries including Sri Lanka, and Europol attended the meeting.

By: Ru Freeman, USA 

Arundhati Roy is certainly an iconic presence in the progressive world I inhabit, but I am inherently suspicious of people who make public pronouncements but act differently in private. Her one visit to Sri Lanka - as far as I know (somebody point out if I'm wrong, please, since I'd like to hold her words in reverence a while longer) - was in the aftermath of THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS when she stood on a podium at the British Council (I was there), to scoff at the Booker and talk about how unimportant it was to her. I wonder, did she return the beaucoup bucks? If not, she is no better than Palin talking about refusing federal funds and then taking the hand out. And I say that as someone who, not so long ago, on this very list, defended Roy for selling her books at Costco.

Nick Meo

(On 26th March, Nick Meo visited Kilinochchi, Elephant Pass and Paranthan and met groups of IDPs who have crossed over to cleared areas)  

The Sunday Telegraph 

National Post

The haunted eyes of the grandfather who had just escaped from the Tamil Tigers at their most furious betrayed the horror he had left behind him. "I want to live, not die, and that's why I have come here with my family," he said.

courtesy: india.ca Arundhati Roy has written an especially arrogant and irrelevant editorial in the Times of India. She makes sweeping statements condemning the government and Sri Lanka and prescribes the world to return like Jesus and somehow fix everything. The government’s not going to turn around and be like, wow, we’re genocidal maniacs, thanks for pointing that out. The ‘world’ is not going to a) exist in any real sense or b) come and occupy Sri Lanka. All she’s doing is intellectual masturbation. It might make her feel better but it helps no one.

"No military operation to defeat terrorism in the world is conducted without difficulty to the civilian population who live in the afflicted area. In the achievement of our military dominance over the LTTE, the civilians, held at gun point by the LTTE have been the centre of our concerns", said the Charge d' Affaires of the Sri Lanka Embassy in Belgium, accredited to the European Union, Ms. Saroja Sirisena, at a meeting of the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the European Parliament held in Brussels yesterday (31).